Retirementally Challenged
Gratitude, Guest Posts, Vancouver Island

Please Join Me at Retirementally Challenged

Retirement Reflections

Thank you to Janis from Retirementally Challenged for inviting me to Guest Host on her site. It is an honour to be part of her first Guest Host Series.

Since the weather is good and Mother Nature is in all of her glory, why not join me for a Spring Garden Tour on Vancouver Island?

A pot of tea and a glass of wine are part of the tour, and are waiting for you at Janis’s!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Retirementally ChallengedRetirementally Challenged

Published by Retirement Reflections

Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own.

33 thoughts on “Please Join Me at Retirementally Challenged”

  1. Hi Donna, Thank you for sharing your garden tour and beautiful photos. I left a comment on Janis’ site but it hasn’t appeared yet. Hopefully it’s waiting for moderation and did not disappear or go into the spam prison. Have a great week!

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  4. Hi Donna I would love to join you in your beautiful garden. Lovely photo of you too! I’m popping over to visit your post at Retirementally Challenged. Have a great day!

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    1. Hi, Sue – Thanks so much for commenting here, and popping over to Janis’s site. Along with the yearly MARS Garden Tour, Milner Gardens is nearby and open all Spring, Summer and Autumn. And of course there is the famous Butchart Gardens in Victoria (where I haven’t yet been). We will definitely need to plan a a Garden Tour when you come out this way!

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      1. Hi Donna, I can also imagine the beautiful Autumn colours that you would have. They are my favourite and I don’t see those in Brisbane as the weather is too hot. Yes, add the Garden Tour to our list 🙂

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    1. Hi, Leanne – Thank you for commenting both here and on Janis’s site. I absolutely love Guest Hosting and look forward to also guesting on your blog this Saturday. One week after that, I Guest Host on Natalie’s Blog. From June 21 – August 1, I will be taking a blogging break. Hopefully that will provide some balance, especially in these busy summer months. See you on Saturday!

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  6. I love the feature photo for this post. You look so happy and relaxed in this garden oasis and I’m in awe of that perfect grass.
    After I read the actual link though, I realize it’s not your perfect garden oasis. I’ve wrestled the green-eyed monster back behind locked doors and I’m prepared to like you again 😉

    (can you tell that springtime and the maintenance demands of the yard do not leave me at my best? 😏)

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  9. I love the summer! I bet it’s beautiful on Vancouver Island right now. I left a comment on your post at Janis’ blog. I first thought your main photo was taken in your own garden, but after reading your complete post, I now know better. 🙂

    PS: If you can read this, my commenting only failed on the iPad.

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    1. Hi, Liesbet – I am sorry to hear that you had trouble commenting as well. This is another reminder to me that my love-hate relationship with self-hosting needs to come to an end. Vancouver Island is absolutely stunning right now — apparently our last seven months of rain had some purpose! 🙂 Are you and Mark still coming out this way this summer? If so, please let me know the dates so that I can work around them. I wold hate to miss you when you are here!

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  10. Hi Donna! Not sure whether this commenting issue has to do with self-hosting or not. Mark and I seem to think it is related to iOS/Safari on my iPad. Or other people’s iPads when dealing with my blog. When commenting with my laptop all is fine.

    As of now, Mark and I still hope to go to BC/Vancouver/Vancouver Island in September. We don’t have exact dates, because we will be living and traveling in our van and don’t plan ahead. We hope to take our time visiting the sites we have in mind (Colorado, Yellowstone, Tetons, maybe Banff/Jasper in Canada). I’ll keep you (and Jude) updated about our progress. The fact that we don’t have set dates means that we can hang around a while until you’re back, if you decide to leave for a bit. 🙂

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    1. Hi, Liesbet – There are numerous commenting issues that are caused by Jetpack, so that is usually the first place that I look. For those who use Jetpack (i.e. most self-hosted WP sites), Jetpack’s first recommendation is to temporarily disable any plugins that you have installed. There are many plugins (including ‘CommentLuv’ and ‘Comment Reply Email Notification’ that Jetpack does not play nicely with. When that doesn’t work, their second recommendation often is to switch to a WP default them (like 2017) as Jetpack is also incompatible with many themes. When that doesn’t work, they recommend going into Jetpack, Settings, and hit “debug” at the bottom of the page. Can you tell that I’ve (sadly) had much experience with this?

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    2. Yes, Liesbet, keep me in the loop too as your plans evolve.

      About the iPad – I almost always read blogs and comment from my iPad, and I often have trouble commenting too. Here are some strategies I have discovered that help with the problem:

      – refresh the page before commenting
      – if, when you press the “post comment” button, nothing happens, then go back into your comment and position the cursor within the comment text. Perhaps type a character or two to make sure it is working (which you can then delete). Then touch the “post comment” button again.
      – if it still doesn’t work, select and copy the comment text. Then refresh the site. Then paste the comment text into a new comment box.

      Jude

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      2. Thanks for the tips, Jude. I’ve found the refreshing helpful, when trying to “like” a page when it doesn’t work the first time. The commenting problem contains of receiving a message after writing and submitting the comment, that reads the form is unsecure. When I hit “submit” anyway as a continued option, the page spins forever and nothing happens. I don’t see a way around it.

        But, I always copy my comments, then send them to my inbox in an email, and attempt to comment later from my computer. I’m pretty sure this is a WordPress issue, since with Blogger this particular problem doesn’t happen. Anyway, we seem to always have to find ways around everything, and it’s getting old. Blogging and commenting used to be easy! Rarely does the issue lie with the owner of the blog.

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      3. Hi, Liesbet – Janis received that same error message “blah, blah blah Insecure” when trying to comment on my last two posts. She switched to commenting via WP Reader and that did the trick for her. I have written to Jetpack about this but have not yet heard back. On Jetpack’s Help Forum they state that a clash of Plugins often causes this (e.g. CommentLuv, WP Forms and other Comment Plugins don’t play nicely with the Jetpack Plugin). Another reader wrote that when this happens, he switches to a small, very basic comment and that usually does the trick for him. Not sure if any of this is helpful.

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      4. Janis had the same problem with my blog as well. My trick is to comment on my computer right now. Maybe it’s time to incorporate the Reader in my blogging life. 🙂 Thing is that these issues all seem temporarily and sometimes they happen, and then all is fine again. My feeling is that the problem often lies with the device or web browser of the commenter. Thanks for the extra info and explanations, Donna.

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      5. Thanks, Liesbet -Because of the build up these technical issues, I am currently pursuing switching away from being self-hosted. I want to spend my blogging time writing and connecting with others…not continually banging my head against the wall. I admire your calm and wise attitude.

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  11. Yikes! I see what you mean now. I assume all those problems occurred on laptops and tablets? I find that on my computer, everything always seems to work fine when I comment anywhere, while on my iPad, things often “act up”. Sorry to hear about all your (continued) issues. No wonder you need a break. 🙂

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